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The rake, and why it can eat your whole edge

The rake. In cash games the house takes a cut of most pots — commonly around 5% up to a cap; in a tournament it's baked into the entry fee. Why a beginner should care: at small stakes, the rake can be bigger than the entire edge careful play generates. It hits bluffs hardest, since they tend to win small pots and the cut comes off the top of money you fought for. Before assuming discipline alone makes you a winner in a given game, find out what the rake is. Frequently, it decides the question all by itself.

The short-table rake trap. One more piece of arithmetic worth knowing: at a short table you play far more hands per hour, and short-handed pots are smaller. Rake is charged per pot, so you pay it more often on less money. A four-handed raked cash game is the hardest configuration in poker to beat — harder than the same players at a full table. Tournaments avoid this (the fee is charged once, at entry), which makes them the friendlier place to play short-handed.